Cover Sheet

MPS-0728891/1

No,

• Cie,A,1/4-1

1 3-1 [ TN199_31._ !al

csiS

72

TN0036

1.5i

ON/ AeltC"r../ 0 Al

No. 477

OA/ eN i.

A. Dickinson

Nt,P[PAW.

MPS-0728891/2

S.B. No. iflain)

Special Report}

SUBJECT

Anti-Internment

ague

Reference to Papers

400/72/245

M,P -71-0478.1(20M (2)

METROPOLITAN POLICE

SPECIAL BRANCH

day of December

1. The following information has been received from areliable source:-

2. On Sunday, 10 December 1972, about 30 members of theSlpgh and various London branches of the Anti-InternmentLeague (AIL) 'occupied' part of the playing fields of thefamous *n School as a protest against the British Army'salleged occupation of schools, football parks and otherpublic places and amenities in the Andersonstown area ofBelfast, Northern Ireland.

3. The 'occupation', which lasted from about 3 pm to 4..15 pm,consisted of about 20 of the demonstrators dressed in footballjerseys over their normal clothing playing a crude form ofIrish football with a semi-inflated rubber ball whilst theremainder listened to a speech byl Pdvacy_j over amegaphone which was directed towardit-ilie-Eton schoolboys'halls of residence.

4. !Pdvacyioutlined briefly the reasons behind the demon-stration. He said Eton School had been chosen for thedemonstration as it was 'a bastion of the privileged rulingclass' of Britain and the main recruiting centre for theTory p,,,,,rty.

5.imvacif ithen handed the megaphone to Privacy who hadbeen invited to speak on behalf of Jake PRESCOTT and theStoke Newington Four and all other pplitical.prisoneye_lsothin Britain and in Ireland. [ Privacy ofSlough Anti-Internment League-,--spoke on the Irish situationbriefly.

6. The blare of the speeches over a none too distinctmegaphone eventually attracted about.three members of*thepublic and a handful of young Etonians to the scene whichhad been deserted until then save for the 4emonstrators.

7. The young Etonians were guide); besieged by thedemonstrators who engaged them in argument over the Irishsituation. The demonstrators, who were mainly Irish, were

MPS-0728891/3

Page No. 2.

at times rather aggressive, sometimes humorous, but always

pathetic in their argument about non-British interference in

Irish affairs. Sinn Pein was heard to say "if

we the Irish want to miiideleach other then we should be

allowed to murder each other in peace (t) without interference

from the bloody British. All we want is an Ireland for the

Irish". On the other hand the young Etonians gave a good

account of themselves supporting the British Government's

traditional policy on Northern Ireland, and although most of

them were rather diminutive in stature they showed a certain

amount of courage on being surrounded by a crowd of argumentative

bsof-inebriated Irish labourers.

p. The young Etonians mentioned that they had no objection tothe demonstrators using their playing fields, and

as the

schoolboys were tactful and did not provoke the demonstrators

in any way the argument quickly developed into a normal

discussion.

9. As the light faded in the late afternoon the demonstrators

gradually left the playing fields for the warmth of their

awaiting coach to Slough and London. They had declined an

invitation by some of the young Etonians to tea at the College

that evening.

10. On reflection the demonstrators considered their day's

activities a major success particularly as they later learned

that their 'occupation' had received some newspaper and,

television coverage. The truth of the matter was that the

whole operation was pathetically organised and the Anti-

Internment League lost over X20.

11. In spite of much publicity the demonstration was poorly

supported. Many leading figures in the AIL who had promised

to support the demonstration failed to appear. Even Bob

PURDIE the national organiser, who had been scheduled to speak

at the demonstration apparently telephoned the Slough Branch

of the AIL at short notice to say that he was suffering from

lumbago and would be unable to attend.

1 2* Submitted herewith is an issue of a leaflet entitled

'Occupied Andytown', which was produced by Peoples Democracy,

London, and several copies of which were distributed at the

demonetration.

13. Those present at thL demonstration included:-

/

Privacy Privacy

MPS-0728891/4

8.0. No. 21 11.111Macje 0.

Privacy Privacy

14. SpecialAppendix.

Submitt

soh references are given in the attached

L-1 HU299/11W142Uons

LPJ A. Dickinson

M.4,42,V5994/em

MPS-0728891/5

,APPNDTX o $pecia. Branch - report o 19- 2

concerning 0.eutOpati*stl.on. held -1) t

League in 1otxgh on 2.72.

Privacy

opiea.Democracy

MPS-0728891/6

IF YOU'VE EVER OPENED YOURDOOR AT 4.30. IN THE MORNINGAFTER THUNDEROUS KNOCKING ONLYTO FIND A BRITISH SOLDIER SH-OVING HIS GUN ERTO YOUR BELLY,THEN YOU KNOW WHAT nos LIKETO LIVE IN ANDERSONSTOWN.

Andersonstown is a hugesprawling area of overspillhousing on the fringes of Belfast. It is the city's newghetto where Catholics fromthe decaying 19th century il-ums of the Lotter Falls are re-housed and where Catholic fam-ilies intimidated out of otherparts of the city have fled.Andereonstown proper and a mumDer of other areas such as ,Ballymarphy, Turf Lodge andBeechmount have been combinedinto a single greater Ander-sonstown electoral divisionfor local government purposes.The whole division contains34,800 electors or about100,000 people.

Socially, the area isextremely deprived. It ismainly working class and unem.ployment is very high. InBallymurphy it is between 40%and 50% for men. The area hata very high proportion of chi:dren yet it has only one publ-ic park, one set of public pl-aying fields and one swimming

ANDYTO N

pool (outdoors and unheated).There is no publicly providedcommunity centre and very fewhalls or social clubs. Foryears the people of Andersons-toen have been fighting forsoCial amenities against loc-al authority indifference andneglect. Now they have a gre-ater enemy to fight.

The greater Andersonstownis bearing the brunt or.

;A-itish military occupationand repression tn Belfast. Thearea contains one fifth of thepopulation of Belfast yet the

best part of five battalionsof British troops or halftheir total force in Belfastare stationed in the area. Andto accommodate themselves theyhave established 17 differentfortified posts, including 3huge wild west style corrugat-ed iron forte. In the process'they havo,commandeered - andstill occupy - 2 schools, thegrounds of a College Of :Educ-ation, 2 football stadiums(one of them Casement Park,the headquarters of the GaelicAthletic Association in theNorth), 2 of the very few pub-lic halls in tho area, and anumber of private houses andflats. For one of their bigg-est forts they seized Glass-mullan green, in the middle of

a densely populated estate andbuilt their fort within 15yards of a row Of houses andwhen operation Motorman beganthey seized and occupied 2other schools in the areawhich public protest has for-ced them to abandon.

Besides depriving the people of Andersonstomn of theiropen spaces and recreation fattitles the British Army sub-jects them to a constant cam-paign of harrassment and intimidation, The area is constantly patrolled with helicopters,armoured cars, saracen armour-ed personnel carriers, pigsand small tanks armed with a108m,a4 cannon as well as pat-rols, in jeeps and foot patrolsand the notorious plain cloth-es array units. The troops arearmed with rubber bullet guns,

and General purposemachine guns. The army havetried to Carry out a house tohouse census in the area dem-anding details of everyone inthe house, including theirreligion and persecuting thosewho refuse to co-operate. They.onstantly raid every pub inhe area taking out all thecustomers and forcing them totend in front of saracenswhile hidden informers ident-ify them. Every night some30 or 40 man are arrested and

MPS-0728891/7

OCCUPIED ANDITOWN cont/d.

taken to army posts for"screening" - a process whichmay involve savage beatingsand always includes intensivequestioning about personal details and political views.

About half the male pop-ulation of Andersonstown havebeen arrested, questioned orhad their : use raidvl by theBritish army tn the past 3yers and t!'•ere is hl-adly at7toile'veh iaan't been aff-eAmd. Over cne third of themen interned in Long Kash arefrom the Greater Andersonstwinarea. In 1972 alone, at least5 unarmed men have been murder4d 17 BeAls4 troops in the0=.

When people in Andersons-town talk about the BritishArmy of Occupation it is noidle slogan, it is the literaltruth. Andersonstown today isas brutal and effectively occ-upied as Warsaw was during theEnd World War. But the peoplehave not been cowed. Ander-sonstoWn has staged some ofthe biggest protest demonstrations against British imperial-ism that have been seen in N.Ireland. During one meetingyoung people turned on an ar-moUred saracen at the verygates of Casemer0 Park ArmyPost. Andersonatown todaystill provides the hard Coreof resistance to British rule.We will keep it 4P Until we'vebuilt a Socialist Republic.

FORTA PACt st

THE BRITISH REGIMENTS OCCUPYING ANDERSONSTOWN AT PRESENT AREr-

- "

1ST BATTALION PARACHUTE REGIMENT - The Bloody Sunday Murderer

1ST BATTALION ROYAL GREEN JACKETS

AND GREEN HOWLRBS.

THE BRITISH ARMY POSTS IN THE GREATER ANDERSONSTOWN AREA ARE

1. BLACK'S ROAD POST - former Youth Hostel.

2. WOODBOURNE HOUSE POST - burnt out Hotel.

3. LENADOON POST (A) - two commandeered he:Uses,

4. LENADOON POST (B) - two commandeered flat blocks.

5. SEVERAL DUG OUTS AND OBSERVATION POSTS IN THE GROUNDSOF ST. JOSEPH'S COLLEGE OF EDUCATION.

6. SL/EVEGALLION FORT - massive fort built an open space.

7. ST. GENEVIEVE'S SCHOOL - partly occupied as an Army post

8. CASEMENT PARK - Main GAA stadium in the North and Socialclub commandeered by Army.

9. FORT MONAGH - Church Hall, school playground and largeopen space all included in an Army fort.

10. ANDERSONSTOWN RUC BARRACKS - occupied and rortifted byAM*

11. ANDERSONSTOWN BUS DEPOT - partly occupied by Army

12. MCRORY PARK - another GAA ground occupied by Army.

13. BROADWAY POST - disused mill and part of Royal victoriaHospital occupied by Army.

14. BLACKMOUNTAIN POST.

15, HENRY TAGGART Pon - former school and cLurch hall.

16. JAMES P. COREY'S - observation posts in a timber yard.

17. ST PETER'S SCHOOL, BR/TTONS PARADE - occupied by Army.

TO FOLLOWING POSTS ARE ON THE FRINGR_OF MB AREA:

A. MUSGRAVE PARK - Military Hospital and Army Post.

B. SPRINGFIELD ROAD - RUC barracks and major Army cemmandcentre.

C. CIOONA ROUSE - residence of British Army 00C Can. "Aso.

blished by PEOPLES D

CASEMENTPARK

(DCA.:Y

FREE THE PEOMPS-0728891/8